User Equipment Power Savings for Machine Type Communications

1. A method to save power in user equipment (UE) comprising: receiving by a controlling entity, UE characteristic information describing mobility characteristics of a UE as one of either normal mobility associated with movable UE or nomadic mobility associated with UE that move occasionally or not at all; deciding by the controlling entity, based upon the UE characteristic information, on a power saving configuration comprising power saving parameters defining operation of the UE while in a RRC Deep Idle state, the power savings parameters controlling at least: power state of processing circuitry; mobility measurements performed by the UE; and handling of download data sent to the UE while in the RRC deep idle state; and sending the power saving configuration to the UE.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlling entity is an enhanced Node B (eNB) and the configuration information is sent in a paging message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlling entity is an enhanced Node B (eNB) and the configuration information is sent in a new message.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the controlling entity is a network operator and power saving configuration is performed as p art of Op en Mobile Alliance Device Management (OMA-DM) procedure or as part of subscriber identity module, over-the-air (SIM -OTA) procedure.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the power saving configuration further controlling a discontinuous reception cycle (DRX).

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the UE characteristic information further comprises either normal data characteristics associated with non-Machine Type Communications (non-MTC) or limited data characteristics associated with Machine Type Communications (MTC).

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the UE characteristic information comprises nomadic mobility associated with UE that move only occasionally or not at all and limited data characteristics associated with Machine Type Communications and the power saving configuration comprises a time interval during which the UE will remain in the RRC Deep Idle state.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the power savings parameters configure the UE to: take no or minimal mobility measurements; not monitor any paging messages; and not monitor any sy stem information broadcasts.

9. A method to save power in user equipment (UE) comprising: receiving by a UE, power saving configuration comprising: power saving parameters modifying a task normally performed by the UE while in a RRC Idle state such that the task that would otherwise be performed in an unmodified fashion while in the RRC Idle state has been changed; and power saving parameters modifying behavior of the UE while in a RRC Deep Idle state, the power saving parameters modifying the behavior of the UE while in a RRC Deep Idle state to at least: reduce the frequency of mobility measurements over the frequency of mobility measurements performed in the RRC Idle state; no monitoring of paging messages; and no monitoring of system information broadcasts; and configuring by the UE, processing circuitry so the behavior of the UE while in the RRC Idle state and the RRC Deep Idle state conform to the power saving configuration.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the p ower saving parameters modifying the task reduce the frequency that the task is performed by the UE.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein while the parameters modifying the behavior of the UE while in the RRC Deep Idle state comprise a length of time for the Deep Idle state.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the UE performs no Radio Resource Control (RRC) tasks while in the Deep Idle state.

13. The method of claim 9 further comprising sending to the controlling entity, UE characteristic information comprising: nomadic mobility; or infrequent transmission of small amounts of data; or both nomadic mobility and infrequent transmission of small amounts of data.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the controlling entity is an eNB and the UE characteristic information is transmitted to the eNB as an establishment clause value in an RRC Connection Request.

15. User equipment (UE) comprising: processing circuitry to: receive, from a controlling entity, configuration information for a RRC Deep Idle state, the configuration information comprising power saving parameters defining operation of the UE while in the RRC Deep idle state, the power savings parameters controlling at least: power state of processing circuitry; mobility measurements performed by the UE; and handling of download data sent to the UE while in the RRC Deep idle state; Configure the UE according to the received power saving parameters; select Radio Resource Control (RRC) states comprising: a RRC Connected state allowing active transmission of data; a RRC Idle state allowing monitoring of Paging messages; and the RRC Deep Idle state; and a timer to measure a length of time, the expiration of which causes a state transition from the RRC Deep Idle state to the RRC Idle state.

16. The UE of claim 15 wherein the length of time is configured by an eNB.

17. The UE of claim 16 wherein the UE is configured to receive a Paging message from the eNB containing the length of time and the UE transitions from the RRC Idle state to the RRC Deep Idle state until expiration of the length of time.

18. The UE of claim 16 wherein the UE is configured to receive a RRC Connection release message from the eNB containing the length of time and the UE transitions from the RRC Connected state to the RRC Deep Idle state until the expiration of the length of time.

19. The UE of claim 15 wherein the length of time is configured by a manufacturer at the time of UE manufacture.

20. The UE of claim 15 wherein the processing circuitry transitions from the RRC Deep Idle state to the RRC Connected state up on determining that transmission of data should not be delayed until the expiration of the length of time.

21. The UE of claim 15 wherein the UE has nomadic mobility.

22. The UE of claim 15 wherein the UE is specifically adapted to Machine Type Communications.

23. User equipment (UE) comprising: memory; a processor coup led to the memory; and instructions, stored in the memory, which, when executed cause the UE to: receive, from a controlling entity, configuration information comprising: RRC idle state power saving parameters that modify a task normally performed by the UE in a RRC idle state such that the task that would otherwise be performed in an unmodified fashion while in the RRC idle state has been changed; and Deep idle state power saving parameters that modify the behavior of the UE while in a RRC Deep Idle state to at least: Reduce the frequency of mobility measurements over the frequency of mobility measurements performed in the RRC Idle state; No monitoring of paging messages; and No monitoring of system information broadcasts; select among Radio Resource Control (RRC) states comprising: a RRC Connected state allowing active transmission of data; the RRC Idle state configured according to the received RRC Idle state power saving parameters; and the RRC Deep Idle state configured according to the received Deep Idle state power saving parameters.

24. The UE of claim 23 wherein the configuration information causes the UE to place DL data into a buffer to process when the UE transitions out of the RRC Deep Idle state.

25. The UE of claim 23 wherein the configuration information causes the UE to discard the DL data.